ACR’s “Classroom of the Future” Uses 11 Imaging Systems

October 2, 2008 – The American College of Radiology is offering a radiology education program – the “Classroom of the Future” - on topics such as coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and CT colonography (CTC) using 11 different imaging systems.

The ACR Education Center provides a national training resource to educate radiology specialists from community hospitals to academic medical centers, so that the early learning curve is accomplished through new educational methods, including simulation, rather than on patients. Classes provide learners not just the opportunity to earn CME credits but also to obtain documentation of proficiency in individual procedures.

The ACR Education Center “uses a hands-on approach that has the learner actively interacting with the case material using a workstation that emulates their own work center. Attendees will work on different imaging systems from Barco/Voxar, Confirma, DynaCAD/Invivo, GE Healthcare, MIMvista, Philips, Siemens, TeraRecon, Viatronix, Visage Imaging and Vital Images.

Attendees will also have access to the ACR Case Engine, the ACR’s proprietary learning methodology that is designed to measure performance as each case is completed. Built on an unparalleled repository of cases, the ACR Case Engine will navigate attendees through the curriculum of cases and provides instant feedback.

The ACR Education Center offers additional courses that cover PET/CT and advanced breast imaging and biopsy techniques. The ACR is adding more programs on interventional radiology techniques, body MR, breast ultrasound, and pediatric cardiac MR through a joint collaboration with the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR).

“The learning environment, he notes, “provides a seamless link between didactic material, computer-based self-study using data sets of unknowns, and real-life, practice-oriented simulations on a system that the individual doctor uses every day.” Reuben Mezrich, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the ACR Education Center Committee, agrees, “There has never been anything like it.”